A milestone for debating architecture

Catalan architecture will once again show itself to the world, in 2026, with all its potential. On the one hand, because Barcelona will host, as in 1996, the World Congress of Architecture, organized by the International Union of Architects (UIA). On the other hand, because the discourse of the meeting will have a marked Catalan DNA, thanks to a team of seven architects who will turn the city into an architectural research laboratory from now until then.

During the presentation of the winning proposal, 'Becoming. Architectures for a planet in transition', on January 17, 2024 in Barcelona, the vice-president of the UIA, Teresa Táboas, assured that "the congress brings together architects from all over the world in order to think about how we can address current challenges and contribute , in this way, to build a better world".

The opportunity is no less: A landmark to debate architecture Barcelona will be the setting for a debate on collective challenges and the solutions that architecture can bring to them and this is a unique occasion for intellectual growth intellectual, collaboration and positive impact on society. Pau Bajet, Mariona Benedito, Maria Giramé, Tomeu Ramis, Pau Sarquella, Carmen Torres and José Zabala are the authors of the initiative chosen in an unprecedented competition at the UIA, in two rounds, to which 24 proposals were submitted and which had a jury made up of big names in international architecture. A vector as volatile and transcendent as time centers the proposal, which has research through the architectural project as its leitmotif. The motto 'Becoming' will be declined in six lines of research, led by the curators alongside an extensive and international group of collaborators, and with a capacity to include architecture in the management of today's great challenges, a task as necessary as it is of incredible responsibility.

There are less than two years left for an appointment that will once again place us at the epicenter of the architectural debate. Let's not waste, however, the agreement to achieve, also, that from the conclusions of the congress, knowledge and practices that have a real impact on people's day-to-day life and the future of the planet can be derived.